Fruit and Yield?

[Lex]

Hello all,
Newbie to this forum, fairly new to homebrewing (did brew "theoretically" for a while).

Planning to brew with "pomegranate molasses" and banana puree. Anyone has advice on guestimating/calculating/measuring the theoretical yield of these for OG and FG?
The pomegranate syrup weighs 380g in about 280ml and the warm banana puree weighed about 900g in about 840ml. According to some documentation, fresh pomegranate has 13% sugar while bananas have 17% but neither is used fresh so that might not help much.

Otherwise, any experience on using either of these would be welcome.

Cheers!

[paul84043]

You're way beyond me there....
Typically you start with a good beer base and add fruit as flavoring, you will get an alcohol boost from the sugars, but it's not typically the main point to it.

So are you calling your beer a Bananagranite, or a Pomanana?

:D

[Lex]

Originally posted by paul84043
You're way beyond me there....

Typically you start with a good beer base and add fruit as flavoring, you will get an alcohol boost from the sugars, but it's not typically the main point to it.

So are you calling your beer a Bananagranite, or a Pomanana?

:D
Maybe I'm just too concerned about the alcohol boost. You're right, it's not the main point but entering my recipes in formulators, I started to think about these variables.
I wish my batches will be more subtle than clearly fruity and I'm thinking more obscure names for them. The one with pomegranate might have a name related to both Germany (Weizen base) and West Asia (from the molasses). The one with bananas I thought about while in West Africa and might add coffee and even chocolate. I'm thinking about names related to West African contexts...
Yeah, I know...Don't blame me, I'm just an anthropologist.

[paul84043]

The fruit does boost alcohol, but I doubt it would be enough to even begin to worry about.
In the absence of any real impirical quantities, I would just WAG it, (Wild ass guess)
My raspberry wheat had 44 oz. of sterile "Oregon" brand raspberry puree added 5 days into the primary ferment, and it's very tasty. I would think that banana would be a very subtle mild flavor and I kind of think that adding alot more wouldn't really help it alot, whereas Pomerganite is quite a distinct pronounced flavor, you could probably get some real intense results from adding more.
Pomegranite is a very low yeild fruit due to that pesky seed in each little pod, not at all like a raspberry, so I would think that you would need to add a bit more.

I'd take a stab at it and see how it comes out, the nice thing about using a good beer base is that you'll still have great beer if the fruit flavor isn't quite what you wanted!

I never really thought about naming beer from an occupational standpoint, I typically just come up with stupid Homer Simpson-ish names.
I'm a do-it all technician, maybe I could start giving my beer KVA ratings in relation to thier alcohol content?

Never mind, that's a stupid idea.

Hmm, Germany and west Asia, is it possible to get a larger separation? Kimchee-Spaten? Sorry, that's Korea...
Mr Lee's Year of the rat Oktoberfest Pomegranite ale?
Viet-Weizen? I just realized that I don't know a damn thing about west Asia.

[Lex]

Originally posted by paul84043
The fruit does boost alcohol, but I doubt it would be enough to even begin to worry about.
Ok, ok...

Pomegranite is a very low yeild fruit due to that pesky seed in each little pod
But I'm using molasses...

I never really thought about naming beer from an occupational standpoint
Me neither. It's just that going to Mali or thinking about beer, being an anthropologist creeps up...

Hmm, Germany and west Asia, is it possible to get a larger separation?
Well, by "West Asia" I mean "Middle East"...
And it's not that far, you know.

[paul84043]

Oh....Middle east, sorry, I was in the completely wrong region!!
I was thinking of a much larger separation, but from a cultural standpoint, I still don't think you can get much different!!

Molasses on the other hand, are a very potent ingredient, be careful how much you use.
I made an "ultimate porter" from Annapolis homebrew, it included "highly refined molasses treacle", whatever that is...and it's been sitting on the shelf for nearly 5 months, I still can't handle the molasses flavor in it....very distinct and strong, almost sulphury.

I hope you didn't get offended with my having fun with the names, I tend to wander sometimes...

[Lex]

Yeah, I know people don't necessarily get my references to West Asia as "the Middle East" but I just think it's a much cooler name.
The pomegranate "molasses" shouldn't be that bad. I mean, I tasted it. It's just a thick syrup which does mean high fruit yield but not necessarily anything too hard to handle.
Nah, I didn't get offended by the names. I'm not easily offended.

[wortchillergoal]

Be careful of how much malt you use with the banana. I know from my ice cream making that bananas are very sweet so you could boost you OG sky high if you wanted to.

[paul84043]

That would also depend highly on the age and ripeness fo the banana. a pound of "just barely turned yellow" bananas is going to have a much lower sugar content than a "been yellow for a while and probably need to get eaten real soon" banana.

[mlsuggs]

FWIW, bananas used in meads (and "country" wines) add body, in rather the same way as malto-dextrins do to beer.

I've absolutely no clue what you could expect from the extracts, although the pomegranate molasses (more of a syrup, yes?) gives me an idea for a mead...:)